Re: [PATCH v2 3/3] mm/page_alloc: Optimize __free_contig_frozen_range()

From: Vlastimil Babka

Date: Mon Mar 16 2026 - 12:22:18 EST


On 3/16/26 12:31, Muhammad Usama Anjum wrote:
> Apply the same batch-freeing optimization from free_contig_range() to the
> frozen page path. The previous __free_contig_frozen_range() freed each
> order-0 page individually via free_frozen_pages(), which is slow for the
> same reason the old free_contig_range() was: each page goes to the
> order-0 pcp list rather than being coalesced into higher-order blocks.
>
> Rewrite __free_contig_frozen_range() to call free_pages_prepare() for
> each order-0 page, then batch the prepared pages into the largest
> possible power-of-2 aligned chunks via free_prepared_contig_range().
> If free_pages_prepare() fails (e.g. HWPoison, bad page) the page is
> deliberately not freed; it should not be returned to the allocator.
>
> I've tested CMA through debugfs. The test allocates 16384 pages per
> allocation for several iterations. There is 3.5x improvement.
>
> Before: 1406 usec per iteration
> After: 402 usec per iteration
>
> Before:
>
> 70.89% 0.69% cma [kernel.kallsyms] [.] free_contig_frozen_range
> |
> |--70.20%--free_contig_frozen_range
> | |
> | |--46.41%--__free_frozen_pages
> | | |
> | | --36.18%--free_frozen_page_commit
> | | |
> | | --29.63%--_raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore
> | |
> | |--8.76%--_raw_spin_trylock
> | |
> | |--7.03%--__preempt_count_dec_and_test
> | |
> | |--4.57%--_raw_spin_unlock
> | |
> | |--1.96%--__get_pfnblock_flags_mask.isra.0
> | |
> | --1.15%--free_frozen_page_commit
> |
> --0.69%--el0t_64_sync
>
> After:
>
> 23.57% 0.00% cma [kernel.kallsyms] [.] free_contig_frozen_range
> |
> ---free_contig_frozen_range
> |
> |--20.45%--__free_contig_frozen_range
> | |
> | |--17.77%--free_pages_prepare
> | |
> | --0.72%--free_prepared_contig_range
> | |
> | --0.55%--__free_frozen_pages
> |
> --3.12%--free_pages_prepare
>
> Suggested-by: Zi Yan <ziy@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Signed-off-by: Muhammad Usama Anjum <usama.anjum@xxxxxxx>

LGTM.
Reviewed-by: Vlastimil Babka (SUSE) <vbabka@xxxxxxxxxx>

> ---
> mm/page_alloc.c | 18 ++++++++++++++++--
> 1 file changed, 16 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/mm/page_alloc.c b/mm/page_alloc.c
> index 6a9430f720579..2e99fa85cdc8e 100644
> --- a/mm/page_alloc.c
> +++ b/mm/page_alloc.c
> @@ -7020,8 +7020,22 @@ static int __alloc_contig_verify_gfp_mask(gfp_t gfp_mask, gfp_t *gfp_cc_mask)
>
> static void __free_contig_frozen_range(unsigned long pfn, unsigned long nr_pages)
> {
> - for (; nr_pages--; pfn++)
> - free_frozen_pages(pfn_to_page(pfn), 0);
> + struct page *page = pfn_to_page(pfn);
> + struct page *start = NULL;
> + unsigned long i;
> +
> + for (i = 0; i < nr_pages; i++, page++) {
> + if (free_pages_prepare(page, 0)) {
> + if (!start)
> + start = page;
> + } else if (start) {
> + free_prepared_contig_range(start, page - start);
> + start = NULL;
> + }
> + }
> +
> + if (start)
> + free_prepared_contig_range(start, page - start);
> }
>
> /**